'Tis next to money current there, To be seen daily in as many forms As there are sorts of vanities and men. OTWAY. Orphan, act i. and ii. WOULD you be happy, leave this fatal place; Fly from the court's pernicious neighbourhood, Where innocence is shunn'd, and blushing modesty Is made the scorner's jest: where hate, deceit, And deadly ruin, wear the mask of beauty, And draw deluded fools with shows of pleasure. ROWE. Jane Sbore, act ii. I AM no courtier, no fawning dog of state, SEWEL. Walter Raleigh, act THE Court's a golden, but a fatal circle, Upon whose magic skirts a thousand devils In chrystal forms sit tempting innocence; And beckon early virtue from its centre. LEE. Nero, act ii. THOU art too good for courts-where ruin preys On innocence; and nought but guile is safe. Shame on the great! why long'd my eyes for courts? Haughty Haughty of heart, why have they souls thus abject? You threaten, praise, fright, flatter, and insult me! Gods! what a creeping, climbing, hot, cold crea ture, Is this big, little flutt'rer, called a courtier. HILL. Merope, act in. MINISTERS. MINISTERS. us FALSEHOOD and insincerity, unsuitable as they seem to the dignity of public transactions, offend i.h a less degrading idea of meanness, than when they are found in the intercourse of private life. In the latter, they discover a want of courage; in the other only a defect of power: and as it is impossible for the most able statesmen to subdue millions of followers and enemies by their own personal strength, the world, under the name of policy, scems to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of craft and dissimulation. ĠIBBON. Roman Empire, vol. i. 119. I HAD formerly upon occasion discoursed with my master upon the nature of government in general, and particularly of our own excellent constitution, deservedly the wonder and envy of the whole world. But having here accidentally mentioned a minister of state, he commanded me some time after to inform him, what species of yahoo I particularly meant by that appellation. I told I told him, that a chief or first minister of state, who was the person I intended to describe, was a creature wholly exempt from joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and anger; at least makes use of no other passions, but a violent desire of wealth, power, and titles; that he applies his words to all uses, except to the indication of his mind; that he never tells a truth but with an intent that you should take it for a lie; nor a lie, but with a design that you should take it for a truth; that those he speaks worst of behind their backs are in the surest way of preferment; and whenever he begins to praise you to others, or to yourself, you are from that day forlorn. The worst mark you can receive is a promise, especially when it is confirmed with an oath; after which every wise man retires, and gives over all hopes. There are three methods by which a man may rise to be chief minister. The first is by knowing how with prudence to dispose of a wife, a daughter, or a sister. The second by betraying or undermining his predecessor: and the third is by a furious zeal in public assemblies against the corruptions of the court. But a wise prince would chuse rather to employ those, who practise the last of these methods; because such zealots prove always the most obsequious aud subservient to the will and passions of their master. These ministers, having all employments at their disposal, preserve themselves in power by bribing the majority of a senate or great council; and at last by an expedient called an Et of indemnity they secure themselves from after reckonings, ! reckonings, and retire from the public laden with the spoils of the nation. The palace of a chief minister is a seminary to breed up others in his own trade; the pages, lacquies, and porter, by imitating their master, become ministers of state in their several districts, and learn to excel in the three principal ingredients, of insolence, lying, and bribery. Accordingly they have a subaltern court paid to them by persons of the best rank; and sometimes, by the force of dexterity and impudence arrive through several gradations to be successors to their lord. He is usually governed by a decayed wench, or favourite footman, who are the tunnels through which all graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the last resort, the governors of the kingdom. SWIFT. Gulliver's Travels, part iv. cb. vi. MINISTERS and favourites are a sort of people who have a state prisoner in their custody, the whole management of whose understanding and actions they can easily engross. This they completely effect with a weak and credulous master, nor can the most cautious and penetrating elude their machinations. Ministers become a sort of miniature kings in their turn. The king has been used to hear those things only which were adapted to give him pleasure, and it is with a grating and uneasy sensation that he listens to communications of a different sort. He has been used to unhesitating compli ance 3 |